Tinubu Seeks Senate Approval to Establish National School of Government
* Proposed institution to replace ASCON, strengthen leadership development, policy delivery Sunday Aborisade in Abuja President Bola Tinubu has asked the Senate to approve a bill seeking to repeal the
The Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), established in 1973 and headquartered in Topo-Badagry, Lagos State, has long served as the country's foremost institution for training senior civil servants, management staff and public officials. Over the decades, however, the college has been dogged by complaints of underfunding, obsolete curricula and declining relevance as the demands of public service delivery have evolved, prompting repeated calls for reform or an overhaul of Nigeria's civil service training architecture.
Tinubu's request to the Senate to repeal the ASCON Act and replace it with a National School of Government signals a broader push to reposition bureaucratic training around leadership development and policy implementation, themes the administration has repeatedly tied to its civil service reform agenda. Both ThisDay and Punch report the same core request, but neither outlet's headlines detail the bill's specific provisions, proposed funding, or transition timeline for existing ASCON staff and programmes, details likely to emerge once the Senate begins deliberating the legislation.